I have a confession. I’m a total magpie. Bright shiny object syndrome – in spades. I have too many ideas. Too many projects I’ve already started. Too many I want to get started on. Too much digital debris on my hard drive. Too much going on, in general.
So here’s my plan. I’m going to pick my next writing project. Then I’m going to start it, finish it and publish or submit it, before I move on to the next one.
It’s not that hard, but it’s not easy either. We creative types have idea after idea, entering our brain, tumbling over one another, shouting for attention.
But split attention is not your friend, and it’s definitely not mine. I know that. It’s why I quit my blogs to focus on just a few main writing platforms. It’s why I unpublished all my books (except one). It’s why I developed a way to store the truly ridiculous amount of ideas I have so I can work on them one by one.
So today, here’s what I’m doing (and I want you to do it with me):
1. Take a deep breath (what the hell – while we’re here, let’s take several)
2. Pick the most important writing project I need to work on right now
3. Start work on it
4. Finish work on it
5. Polish it ‘til it shines
6. Publish/submit it
7. Repeat
(The one exception I’m allowing myself is that I can take a break between 4 and 5, during which I can work on another project – but only one.)
Number two is hard. But you can do it. Pick one. The one that’s most important, right now. It might be the one with an externally imposed deadline, or the one that makes your heart sing. There are different ways to be important.
We don’t have to write all the books, articles, essays or stories at the same time. Here at Change the World With Words we’re all about building a body of work to be proud of. And how do we build things? Brick by brick. Piece by piece. Word by word. Project by project.
The project you’re working on could be a blog post, a newsletter, a long-form essay or a book. And if it’s a book it’s okay to treat each chapter or section as a project, just to limit overwhelm.
In the middle of each project you’ll still get ideas for others. That’s fine. Record them. Park them for later. Then get back to what you’re working on.
Learn to feel like you’re ‘done’ rather than always, relentlessly, ‘doing’. And when you are done? Time for downtime. Just until it’s time to take your next set of deep breaths and start again.
Let me know how it goes.
Some thoughts from others I’ve been enjoying this week
Self-Publishing Authors: You Only Have So Much Space & Time by
How To (Not) Create A Lead Magnet: 3 Reasons Why Mine Failed by
10 books that will rapidly improve your writing, help you make more impact, and motivate you to create by Alex Mathers
On a Regular Basis, Repost Your Old Best Content by
A New Book Launch Every Week by
What else I’ve been up to this week
Reading: The Last Law of Attraction Book You’ll Ever Need to Read by Andrew Kap (We’ll see, Andrew, we’ll see. I’ve only just started it. It was free with Prime Reading)
Watching: The Traitors
Enjoying: Drinking wine with friends on the beach
Not enjoying: Juggling too many deadlines
This week’s Medium post
(Friend link, of course, so you can read for free):
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Ohhhh K! 🦋
I’m gonna finish the 2 blog posts I have in draft mode - then get my dang ebook done. And try not to judge myself too hard. 😬
Thanks for this push. It’s really helpful. ☺️
*says "wow" then - saves publication. I already learned the hard way that choosing one project is better than trying to juggle 3 or 4 books at once. But reading this was great to see it spread out clearly like this. Thank you!